Jan. 5, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



CONDUCTED BY 



UK. C. O. AlILLBR, ^larensgft. III. 



(Questions may be mailed lo the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct.] 



Introducing Queens. 



Critic Taylor, in the Bee-Keepers' Review, calls atten- 

 tion to the fact (for which I thank him) that on pafje 727 

 (1898). in telling- a sure way to introdnce a queen. I did nc.t 

 mention that the queen should be put in. Come to think of 

 it. it would be a good plan to put her in, but by no means 

 at the time he suggests — "not till a handful of bees ap- 

 pear." There would be nothing to gain and a good deal to 

 lose by waiting so long-. Put her in just as soon as you put 

 ill the" frames of brood. • C. C. Mili.EK. 



The Granulation of Honey. 



There is a woman who sells strained honey here, and 

 says it is pure, and of her own extracting, yet it candies 

 quickh-. Also a merchant here who has a lot of honey in 

 pails labeled as pure, yet it is as solid as so much soft 

 maple sugar. The directions say, " Put the pail in warm 

 water and it will dissolve :" also that " all honeys will 

 candy." Now is this true? Is it old or new honey? Or 

 will new honey candy ? New Yokk. 



AxswKK.- The exceptions are .so few that it may be 

 said that all pure honey granulates sooner or later, there 

 being no exceptions that I ever knew in Northern honey. 

 If you see a package of honey that has stood through the 

 winter without granulating-, you may be almost sure there's 

 glucose in it. Cold weather hastens granulation, yet ex- 

 tracted honey generally granulates before freezing weather 

 and sometimes before it is taken from the hive. If you get 

 any extracted honey at this time of the year, you may feel 

 pretty sure it will granulate soon after j-ou get it, if not al- 



Qiueens Piping Board Cover Over Bees in Winter 

 Prevention of Swarming. 



1. Will you please describe, as nearly as you can, the 

 sound of a queen piping? I'do not know a thing about it. 

 and I would like to know what it is like so I will be sure of 

 what I am doing when the time comes. 



2. On page 694 (1898). in the answer to the fourth ques- 

 tion, from Michigan, I understand that you have used for 

 some time a board cover instead of a quilt over the bees. 

 Do you mean this for double-walled hives on the summer 

 stands, with packing on top of the board cover? If so, how 

 can the moisture g-o up through the board, as much of it 

 ought to? 



3. If I have the queen's wing- dipt when she swarms, if 

 I kill her and put her on the alighting-board, and the bees 

 go in ag-ain, and when I hear the young queen piping, if I 

 cut out all queen-cells will it be a sure plan to keep them 

 from swarming- ? B.\ldwin. 



Answers.— 1. That's' a very, hard thing to do. Sit 

 down and try to write a description of the crowing of a 

 rooster so that one who has never heard it will know ex- 

 actly what it .sounds like. But altho it's so hard for me tw 

 tell you what the piping of a queen sounds like, it isn't so 

 hard for you to tell it when you hear it. The sound a queen 

 makes when piping is a good deal like the repetition of the 

 word "peep" or "teet." It's a rather shrill sound, uttered 

 several times in succession, the first time long drawn out, 

 then shorter and shorter, then the queen will be silent for a 

 time considerably longer than »he occupied in piping, when 

 the piping will be repeated, perhaps in a different part of 

 the hive, for when a queen is piping- she generally is on the 

 move pretty lively, only when she is piping she remains 

 perfectly still. If a strong colony has sent forth a prime 

 swarm, and nothing has been done to prevent the is.sue of a 

 second swarm, you may hear piping a week after or later. 

 Go to the hive in the evening- after the bees have stopt fly- 

 ing and all is still. Put your ear against the side of the 

 hive and listen patiently. Perhaps within two minutes you 



will hear, " p-e-e-e-p, p-e-e-p, pe-ep, peep, peep." and imme- 

 diately after it you are likely to hear one or more of the 

 young queens that are yet in their cells replying in a 

 coarser tone, "quawk, quawk, quawk," the quawking- 

 queens seeming to be more in a hurry than the one that 

 pipes. I don't believe you'll have much trouble to tell it 

 when you hear it. 



2. I use sing-le-walled hives and winter them in the 

 cellar. 



3. Yes. if you cut out all queen-cells ; but' if you miss a 

 single one it will not work. Neither is there any tise of put- 

 ting the dead queen on the alighting--board. The bees will 

 usually come back without that, altho sometimes they may 

 g-o into some other hive whether the queen is dead or alive. 

 if you kill the queen, or take her away, do it when the 

 prime swarm issues. If you leave her till the young queen 

 pipes, the bees may annoy by swarming out several times 

 before the young queen issues from her cell. By the time 

 the young queen pipes, the old queen is likely to be put out 

 of the way without any attention from you. 



#-*-♦ 



Staple-Spaced Frames Chaff Hives Pure Italian Bees 

 vs. Hybrids-T Supers vs. Pattern-Slats. 



1. Do you consider staple-spaced frames all right to 

 handle ? In this locality reg-ular HofFmans are very badly 

 stuck together. 



» 2. Would you advise me to use chaff hives where there 

 is no cellar to winter in ? 



3. Would it be best to buy pure-bred Italian queens, or 

 breed from good hybrids ? Each of two colonies of hybrids 

 g-ave me over SO pounds of nice comb honey from the fall 

 flow of heart's-eas6. 



4. I am well pleased with T tins over pattern-slats. The 

 bees enter more quickly, work better, and seal the outside 

 sections almost as soon as the centers. I have destroyed 

 all old pattern-slat supers. Ii,linois. 



Answers. — 1. You will very likely like the staple- 

 spaced frames mucii better than the Hotfmans, and perhaps 

 you might like the right kind of wire nails still better than 

 staples. 



2. In your locality (central Illinois) it is doubtful 

 whether it is advisable to use chaff hives. If you winter 

 outdoors you can use single-walled hives with some protec- 

 tion. 



3. Better breed from the pure stock. Suppose you 

 reared a number of queens last summer from a pure Italian 

 queen, and you found that these young queens had 

 all met black drones, and that every colony of these hybrid 

 bees stored 50 pounds of heart's-ease, while the pure stock 

 did not do so well ; it might seem to you that because the 

 hybrids did the better work it would be better to breed from 

 them. But if you did so you would probably find that the 

 next generation of hybrids would fall behind the pure Ital- 

 ians. You'll probably g^et all the hybrids you want when 

 trying to breed pure Italians, and you'll find those hybrids 

 better than those that are reared from hybrids. 



4. I am with you in preferring the T supers, but are 

 you not giving them just a little too much credit ? It hardly 

 seems to me that there would be a very noticeable difference 

 as to bees entering .supers, and I can't see any reason why 

 they should finish the outside sections in the T supers bet- 

 ter than in the others. 



Taking Bees from Between House-Partitions. 



My friend in Long Island has a colony of bees that has 

 made its home in the side of her house, between partitions, 

 for several years. Once she took off the boards and cut out 

 a large quantity of honey. She has become greatly inter- 

 ested in bees and bee-culture, and would like to hive these 

 bees, if possible, and wants to know when and how to do it. 



HOLLIS. 



Answer. — Much depends on the "lay of the land," each 

 case being a case by itself. However, having once cut out 

 honey, it ought not to be a very hard matter to g-o just a 

 step farther, cutting out the combs, and removing combs, 

 bees, brood and all. Perhaps the best tii-ne to do this will 

 be when fruit-trees are in bloom. Then put combs in 

 frames after the manner described in your text-book as 

 transferring. Some one who has had a little experience in 

 handling bees ought to undertake the job, and he will know 

 how to get the bees out of the way when transferring- the 

 coinbs. 



